Below is an alternate version of comic #4. A tremendous amount of work went into this. I did a lot of photoshopping and fought with Comic Book Creator a great deal in trying to lay this out. When I was done I realized I had a new version of the strip which looked gorgeous, but at the expense of ruining the dang joke.

Ah well. I had fun making it.

Also, for those people who suggested that I should take on the Star Wars movies next, I’m happy to report that someone has stepped up to the challenge. David Morgan-Mar, the guy behind Irregular Webcomic is now working on Darths & Droids, a send-up of Phantom Menace. According to the site, it’s going to be a collaboration between six or seven people? Wow. I was barely able to get along with myself during the run of DMotR, so I don’t know how that’s going to work. Still, I wish them luck. They’re off to a good start.

looks like number four (probably I will really be farther down the time stream). This is a very pretty one, but humor trumps beauty every time. I really did like the “screw that” panel. Is this like bloopers from the web comic? You could even do bloopers the way most people really do them; make them stupid on purpose.

I wonder whether the humor isn’t being directly undercut by the sweeping vistas. After all, the humor works by undercutting the grandeur of Tolkien’s/Jackson’s vision, portraying it as excessive detail created by an obsessive GM. Thus, anything which renders Jackson’s visuals in anything like their original grandeur gets in the way of the strip’s humor machine.

Arrrgh! I have Comic Book Creator, and was going to go and get Phantom Menace this weekend (my house was broken into two weeks ago, and my DVDs were among the things stolen) specifically so that I could do a DM of the Rings style using the Star Wars movies / rpgs.

Darths and Droids is off to a decent start, but I’ll just say it: I know Shamus can deliver, and I don’t know if these other guys can. I’m hopeful, but Shamus is like a favorite stuffed animal, and you can’t just go out and get a new one.

“Darths and Droids is off to a decent start, but I'll just say it: I know Shamus can deliver, and I don't know if these other guys can. I'm hopeful, but Shamus is like a favorite stuffed animal, and you can't just go out and get a new one.”

David Morgan-Mar is dependable, he’s got 1700 strips of dependable quality jokes. If anyone besides Shamus were to attempt it, I’d rather it be him than someone I’ve never seen before.

I agree with snook, DMM of Irregular Webcomic is one solid Aussie. His webcomic is so dialed in that even when he’s travelling internationally for weeks or lying in the hospital dying of an infection (no, really!) the webcomic still posts SEVEN DAYS A WEEK.

I guess technically it was irregular for the first few months because he skipped a few days here and there in 2003. But I think he hasn’t missed a day since May 17th, 2003.

So the title itself is a joke, his webcomic is one of the more reliable things on the planet.

Although I’m not sure if Cliffhangers is my favorite. I’d probably have to go with the Deaths and Steve Irwin and all their crossovers, especially when Cthulu shows up.

Actually, the dying in the hospital thing actually predates the comic. I got confused because his hospital stay happened after he got back from a trip to Italy, and he uses pictures he took in Italy in the comic.

For the record, you actually aren’t the first person to do this kind of comic Shamus. There was one based on The Matrix that I read a few years ago. It ran through the first movie, up to the death of Neo, which was the comical end of it. Among the many funny jokes, the one that in particular stands out is that Neo’s duties, as the One, were to include cleaning all the toilets in Zion. I’m searching for it again now, but no luck so far…

Just to echo the words of others, if you’re not familiar with Irregular Webcomic, fear not: David Morgan-Mar is one consistently hilarious guy.

Not only great webcomics (involving excellent use of Lego) but with several RPG themes that could only have been produced by someone with years of cynical gamesmaster experience (the system he plays seems to be GURPS) his webcomics has several different storylines based on RPG’s (fantasy, science-fiction, superheroes) and books/films (Indiana Jones, James Bond, Harry Potter, and yes, Star Wars). He has done the kind of Star Wars send ups (the series of strips analysing the biology and thermodynamics of Coruscant seriously has to be read to be believed!) that only a true fan could produce.

So, on the whole, to me, the news that DMM is taking on Star Wars is the about the best news I could imagine following DMotR coming to an end (and I can quite imagine why Shamus, despite his godlike performance on DMotR, might want to do something else, for a change…)

okay!: This is Morgan-Mar we’re talking about. He’s been delivering a consistently funny, thoughtful and punctual webcomic for longer than nearly everybody else. I’m absolutely confident his Star Wars spoof will be made of awesome, because that is how he rolls, yo.

“He (DMM) has done the kind of Star Wars send ups (the series of strips analysing the biology and thermodynamics of Coruscant seriously has to be read to be believed!) that only a true fan could produce.”

And a PhD in Physics. I have a BS in physics, but I’ve learned more reading his annotations than I did in college.

I learned of DMotR THIS MORNING while reading Irregular Web Comic. I proceeded to blow all the plans I had for the day by reading the entire archive. Magnificent work Shamus. My side is still aching from all the laughing. I will miss this. I did have pangs of withdrawal a couple times today though when I got redirected to a domain parking page instead of your site. The apparent DNS glitches seemed to clear themselves up.

Thanks for the link, Shamus, and for the good vibes, peeps. They’re going to be tough shoes to fill, and I just hope I can do half as good as Shamus did on this strip.

It’s not just going the be Phantom Menace, either. We plan to do all six movies. It just seemed to make sense to play the campaign in chronological order, rather than do the original three and then the prequel thing.

Thanks for the tip! I don’t read that much Irregular Webcomic, so I probably would have missed it entirely if you hadn’t mentioned it! And yeah. While I have a *few* qualms about anyone tackling the next logical step from DMotR other than you, I will admit, if anyone can do it, it’ll be Mar (whose real name I didn’t know until just now, incidentally). The guy’s good, and this looks like a great start.

I feel less bad about you going away from screencap-comics, too, knowing the void’s being filled.

You think that the new art ruined the joke? Somehow, I doubt that. Check it: you forgot to add the “Good idea!” tag from the DM. It added to the joke, and it’s gone in this version. You fix that, and, theoretically, you fix the joke.